I am moderately deaf and wear hearing aids in both ears. I am hoping to apply for Medical school this year.
Will I be at a disadvantage because my listening/communication skills aren't very good?
Does anyone know if special stethoscopes etc. are available for doctors with hearing loss?
Thanks

(Original post by Gwenog_quidditch)
I am moderately deaf and wear hearing aids in both ears. I am hoping to apply for Medical school this year.
Will I be at a disadvantage because my listening/communication skills aren't very good?
Does anyone know if special stethoscopes etc. are available for doctors with hearing loss?
Thanks

I'm in the same position except I have a profound hearing loss and wear cochlear implants - I know they offer stethoscopes for cochlear implants although I'm not sure about heading aids.
With regards to communication skills, I'm not quite sure, it will mainly come down to the interview but communication skills are pretty important so maybe try improving them?

The only thing I'm worried about is Fitness to Practice, however they only assess that AFTER interview and you've got a place which is annoying as hell -.- I don't want to go through the whole application process and be rejected - although most uni's say it shouldn't be an issue.

(Original post by Gwenog_quidditch)
I am moderately deaf and wear hearing aids in both ears. I am hoping to apply for Medical school this year.
Will I be at a disadvantage because my listening/communication skills aren't very good?
Does anyone know if special stethoscopes etc. are available for doctors with hearing loss?
Thanks

I know of at least 3 doctors with significant hearing loss, all of whom use hearing aids. I'm pretty sure there are special stethoscopes but I don't know details about them unfortunately. I don't know details about how each of them manages, but I know there are certain things they find tougher, e.g. surgery because facemasks mean you can't lipread, busy departments like A&E/MAU because there are so many distracting noises (I have normal hearing and struggle to filter out the background noise in some situations!) There are a lot of phone conversations as well, though I think there's some adaptation on a hearing aid that can help with that?

When you say your listening/communication aren't good, what do you mean? Are you able to have a one-to-one conversation with someone, express yourself clearly etc? Is it just that you're worried you'll mishear something? I think if you're upfront about it, most people won't mind at all, and if you can handle a normal adult conversation then there's no reason interviews should be an issue. You will have to go through occupational health, as nomophobia says, but they should be more about supporting you rather than finding reasons to reject you!

I know of a medical student (actually she's probably a doctor by now) who was deaf and wore two hearing aids. There are stethoscopes that you can use, they're pretty cool actually. The main disadvantage is that they are VERY expensive. I don't know if you would be able to get some financial assistance for that - it's always worth asking.

The reason I know about this girl is because she failed an OSCE blood pressure measuring station and had to go through a massive faff to get it sorted. The problem was that the her stethoscope was by necessity a lot more technologically advanced than the regular kind, and took a little bit more time to set up and use. It was a very short station so due to time pressure it simply wasn't possible for her to complete the station in time, It was all sorted out with no problems in the end and she didn't have to retake, but I guess it's a cautionary tale to make extra sure than all necessary allowances are made for you, especially when it comes to clinical exams

TL;DR you may face some unique challenges, but it is totally possible to be deaf and study medicine, dependent on being cleared by occy health of course